Author Archives: Bernhard

I started with triathlon when I did the half Ironman in Rapperswil-Jona this year together with 2 colleges from the company. I was surprised by the fun you have

with this sport and as I am feeling very well in water and liked swimming since I was a boy it seemed to be clear that I try this sport.

A couple of weeks ago we started at Sempach where I did the short distance but from then my target was to do the olympic distance at least once this year.

I did a lot of swimming training in the local bath in Rüti where you get from the office in only a couple of minutes. I manage to train once per week and was finally able to do 2000 meters crawl without getting really tired.

This Sunday I started in Uster for the olympic distance after I did a last test on Monday. But when I saw the distance you have to swim, I was afraid that I would not be able to do it, so far away seemed it. The start of 250 men at the same time is a big confusion because you not enough place but after some meters it gets better.

Now here I am the finisher of my first triathlon and I was much faster than targeted. I had 2 hours and 50 minutes and only 31 minutes for swimming. This is an acceptable time for me. I will do some more training on my technic for crawl, but I think there is not a lot to improve. I am proud and happy.

This was also the first time I participated at this race. Its also great fun. I stood up at 4 am in the morning and went by car to Davos. You need 2 hours from Einsiedeln and I had not ticket yet, so I tried to be there early enough. Start was at 7 am in the morning.

All went ok, but when it was time to start I realized that I had forgotten my chip. I immediately went back to my car which was not so far away to put the chip on. But when I came back to the start, all participants were gone and I did not know, into which direction. I just missed them all.

First I tried one direction, but nobody there, then I went into the other direction and finally managed to get them by seeing them coming back from a turnaround. I had two options: go back and try to find the route or cheat a bit and enter the mass from where I was. I decided to do the second one. Nobody claimed and I was not there to win the race.

Big race, very beautiful route. Quite up and down and at the end I was totally exhausted and my legs burned. I had to stop and walk, try again to run, walk again but at the end I finished. Next year, I know it better and will do it correctly. Davos is very nice. Have never been there before.

Again first time. This year, I have a lot of „first times“. This weekend it was a triathlon I did on my own. A couple of weeks ago I did a 70.3 together with 2 colleges from our office. I took over the part with the bike. But now I did it alone. The shortest possible distance: 500 meters of swimming, 21 kilometers of biking and 5 kilometers of running. Was not really exhausting but my time was also not good.

Swimming is the hardest part. I was starting with my normal bathing short and got a couple of laughter for it. I was not bad but could not see anything in the lake. Once I stopped to have a look where I am and saw that I was drifted away form the others for quite a couple of meters.

Biking is my favorite. I am really good at that and were able to take over some of the athletes. But running was not as well. Some of the athletes were much faster than me. At the end I was running head on head with a woman and even talked to here just to say good by half a kilometer before the finish to here where she was catching up again and finishing some meters before me.

All in all my new favorite sport. I will by a triathlon suite so that I will not loose to much time in the changing area next time. And of course, olympic distance is my preferred target now: 1.5 km swimming, 40 km biking and 10 km running. Lets see if this is possible already this year. Of course I will be back next year at the Sempachersee triathlon.

I had to go to a customer on Monday, to Antwerpen. I already have been in Brussels a couple of years ago, in Winter. Belgium is very nice. I like the people and the cities.

I had to fly to Amsterdam because the cost are much lower and went by train from Schiphol to Antwerpen. It is a ride of exactly 1 hour with WIFI connection in the wagon. Very convenient.

The hotel was near the docks in an old area which was massively improved recently. I found a very nice restaurant just near the hotel where you could sit outside and had twice dinner there.

The beer in Belgium is also very good. Had a couple of them. At the end we also found the error in our Software, so my trip was a success. Was back today late afternoon. I really like such trips from time to time.

This was the first run around Lauerzersee and there were already more than 600 participants. It was extremely hot, more than 30 degree, when it started last Friday at 7 pm.

Was not so easy to get there, you have to park your car at Seewen-Märkt which is a shopping mall not so far away. You only have to cross a trail way and a highway! And I was really in a hurry because I had to get a start number just before the beginning and was already very late.

The race starts just in front of the local swimming bath at the lake and is exactly 10 kilometers in distance. I started too fast and was still tired because I did also 1000 meter crawl a noon, the same day. So my arms were hurting but thought this is a good training for a triathlon.

After 5 kilometer, I was already quite exhausted and had problems with breathing and each kilometer became harder. At the end I really was happy to finish. My time was a few second above 50 minutes, so still 5 minutes per kilometer.

The route itself is not very beautiful, big part of it is just in parallel to the highway with thousands of cars with bad air and noise. I originally wanted to participate at Klöntalerseelauf which took place at the same day but decided to do Lauerzerseelauf because it is nearer to my home and it was the first time. Maybe next year I will decide for Klöntal if they are again on the same day.

I was watching some videos from Jill Geisler which I have downloaded from iTunes U and was so fascinated by the videos that I listened to all of them within a couple of days. Finally I ordered the book from Jill Geisler which was not yet published.

And two weeks ago, I was surprised to get an email from Amazon that they have sent the book. I just did not remember the name Jill Geisler. But now I remember well. This is a very impressive book, easy to read with very usable hints and tips about team leading.

I will put the book after I have finished reading it into our shelf in the office so that my team members can see it and even read it if they want. I already started practicing some of the facts I have read about. Jill Geisler was working for news TV station and now is teaching at Poynter institute.

I saw an article about Sal Khan a couple of weeks ago in Times magazine. I think it was the version where they portrayed the most influential people of the year 2011. On of the persons of 2011 was Sal Khan, the founder of an online academy. I was interested and had a look at the web site and was immediately impressed.

Now I am watching more and more videos. I am especially interested into the topic economy where Sal explains a lot about the current problems of US economy. But I also already watched videos about biology, maths and history.

The videos are about 10 minutes and Sal is able to explain things so easy that everybody should be able to follow him. I even able to follow him though its all English.

The most impressive videos so far were about evolution, bankruptcy, US elections and so on. Very impressive!

This is a bike tournament where you start in different groups of about 20 to 20 people depending on your personal speed. I started in „sports“ group but was not really sure if I am able to follow. So I expected a quite hard fight and was prepared to have to give up and finish in the next slower group or find my way to the finish alone.

The frist 50 kilometers go constantly up to the mountains. Its not really hard, you just have to follow the group to be in the wind shadow. I was able to follow and the rest after 50 kilometers was quite acceptable. From then it goes quite steep up to the mountains, 12 kilometers almost only in the lowest gear. This part was free speed, so everybody could go his own tempo.

On top there was a snake station and a rest of about 20 minutes. And then it went straight down. On top we had approximately half of the whole route (130 kilometers). And the following 2 hours were mostly going down. As long as you were able to stay in the group everything was ok. But when we had to pass a short up a hill, I really had to fight, to be able to follow. Legs were hurting badly then and it was not going better until finally we finished.

It was a wonderful day! I will come back next year to the Säntis-Classic.